An interesting article popped up in my newsfeed about harnessing the wind from HVAC units on data centers. Still can’t get around the idea that the fans from the HVAC when combined with the turbines produce more MWh than consumed.
Doubt it would be useful for the home since sounds like HVAC fans need to be constantly running to be useful. But plenty of large indoor spaces could benefit.
From the article:
The 16 fans of the chillers, consuming a total of 336.39 MWh annually, generate a net electricity of 467.6 MWh after accounting for a 9 percent loss due to unplanned downtime and maintenance.
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That seems highly suspicious to me, as well. The only explanation that might make sense is if the outside “natural” winds in the area also contribute to providing rotational energy to the turbines. That would boost the output to perhaps more than the energy consumed in running the fans.
_ Pete
Do the fans on the HVAC units have to work harder to overcome the resistance of the turbines? TANSTAAFL
Yes. As pointed out in the comments section of the linked article, any energy harvested from the moving air is a product of the energy used to put it in motion. The premise of of the article (or at least the stated energy numbers) is flawed and what is described is a perpetual motion machine.
Thank you!
1st law of Thermodynamics - You can’t win
2nd law of thermodynamics - You can’t break even.
3rd law - You can’t quit playing the game.
That’s theoretically possible, but unless you channel the exhaust and force it at the turbines, I would expect the effect to be too small to be meaningful. Without some kind of “back pressure” or restriction of the flow, the exhaust would simply take the path of least resistance, which would be somewhere else other than the turbine blades. (Or whatever it might be. I can envision a sort of “water wheel” where instead of water flowing over the top, air would be pushing against the bottom, spinning the wheel and producing energy.
The idea that it would produce more energy than the fans are consuming is hilarious, however, (unless their is such substantial heat from the data center that it creates a chimney effect of its own, in which case, why fans, except to speed it up?)